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Armed Civilians Fight Venezuela Protesters

Government Goads Self-Appointed Guardians of Revolution to Counter Unrest

By

Ezequiel Minaya

May 5, 2014 8:06 p.m. ET

CARACAS—As Venezuela's civil unrest stretches into a fourth month, the government has relied mostly on National Guard troops to contain protesters. But it also has another, less formal tool: gangs of armed, pro-government civilians.

Mobs of civilians on motorcycles have swarmed antigovernment demonstrations, sometimes firing weapons, sometimes swinging bats, and have stormed a university and burst into apartment blocks in search of adversaries, witnesses and rights groups said. Created under late President Hugo Chávez's government,...